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Sorry for no post last week! I was adversely affected by Nemo: i.e. trapped indoors with nothing to do other than try to entertain a housebound 5 yr old whilst not destroying the house or my sanity. So, we did survive Nemo. It wasn’t pretty. Gobs of snow. This is the view of my husband’s excavation from the basement door…

Hmm. That’s kind of a lot of snow for one storm. This is our back deck:

That’s our deck furniture…a table and a tipped over chair (blown over by the wind). That looks like AT LEAST two feet, doesn’t it???? The neighbors across the street:

Don’t pity them too much. They hire a service to come and clear out the driveway and the sidewalks, etc. Our service was my husband, who unburied us…maybe we’ll hire someone to do it next time? (eh, honey?) Pshaw! What’s the fun of being a New Englander if you can’t gripe about the weather whilst heaving wet heavy snow over a five foot wall of ice? Needless to say, I was going postal with cabin fever. At least we didn’t lose power…I would have just stayed in bed all day if we had! (just kidding, honeeey!!!)

The following weekend, my son and I walked through the blustering cold to a nearby friend’s house for his birthday party. It was so fun, albeit total chaos: twenty kids tearing around the house screaming while shoving cheese and crackers into their mouths. My son, so practical, gave me his half eaten crackers/cheese to hold so that he could run around more easily. Everytime someone introduced themselves and shook my hand, they ended up with a palmful of crumbs. I had a glass of sangria to get me through it.

One of the activities for the kids was to make paper bag puppets. You know…like the ones that advertise Fandango:

Notice that his nose is a croissant. You can see the ad here. Ridiculous right? Anyway, the kids made paper bag puppets. Can you guess what the theme of the party was?

No, that’s NOT a woman in a niqab. It’s a NINJA! Isn’t that hilarious and adorable????? Like THIS:

But not like THIS:

Luckily, our kids haven’t gotten into this level of commercialism yet. Coincidentally, NPR did a segment recently on the history of ninjas. You can listen to it here. I learned that ninjas were meant to be spies, not so much warriors. And definitely not turtles. There is no mention of turtles being ninjas in Japan in the 15th century. You have to wait until the 20th century in the U.S.A. Well, AT LEAST the kids learned the names of famous artists: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo! Too bad that they think they’re turtles with nunchucks (or “nunchuku” for you purists out there…)

With every day that passes, I’m more convinced that we’re all going to hell in a handbasket.

As I managed to get out of the house this week, I went to Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville to see a show that my advisor is participating in. The show is, “Surface Matters: Exploring the Sense and Substance of Paint.” It features the works of: Adria Arch (my advisor), Ron Brunelle, Jessie Morgan, and Diane Novetsky. I have some images from the show:

Adria Arch, Exhale 2, Acrylic on panel

This is the work of my advisor! She works with other people’s doodles, manipulating and arranging them into new colors and configurations. It’s like a graphic language of the subconscious. Fascinating! More:

Adria Arch, Triangle Tangle, Acrylic on panel

This is a very large diptych. I LOVED the colors in this one and the repetition of the shapes at different scales, colors, and layers. These panels are built up a bit, almost like the layers of encaustic, but with acrylics.

Next:

Jessie Morgan, Night Tide #925, Mixed media on plexi

This artist had a really interesting process of somehow squeegeeing large swaths of color on slick plexi. The ridges of paint are visible, and it seems that she uses both sides of the plexi. The colors in this piece are gorgeous. You can’t tell from the photo, but there are subtle horizontal bands of a pale green that are embedded behind the dark vertical layers. This is a rather large piece…maybe 48″x48″?

Next:

Ron Brunelle, You Speak My Language, Acrylic on wood panel

This work also had the look of encaustic. He gets and amazing amount of layering and color in his work. His work also made me think of the rich and saturated hues of ceramic glazes.

All of the artists have visual depth/layering in their works, without necessarily building up a lot on the panel surface. I think that they’ve all honed some interesting techniques. I really enjoyed this show…so go see it if you’re in Somerville!

Ahh…Somerville. How I miss your grittiness. This was nearby the gallery. You might want to bring a ninja with you if you go after dark. If you don’t have an actual ninja to bring (who does?), you’ll have to channel your “inner ninja,” whatever that is…